Zac Efron is a revelation in Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles

The High School Musical star comes into his own in Richard Linklater's period charmer, out in the UK on 4 December, which goes behind the scenes of Orson Welles's infamous production of Julius Caesar.
Watch the world exclusive UK trailer here

Zac Efron is a revelation in Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles

The High School Musical star comes into his own in Richard Linklater's period charmer, out in the UK on 4 December, which goes behind the scenes of Orson Welles's infamous production of Julius Caesar.
Watch the world exclusive UK trailer here

His latest, Me and Orson Welles, is perhaps his weirdest to date, on account of its breezy conventionality. It's not even as experimental (praise be) as Cradle Will Rock, Tim Robbins's grating backstage-with-Welles politico-drama, which it superficially resembles.

Zac Efron plays an ambitious high schooler with a decent voice and twinkle toes (plus ca change) who wheedles his way to a walk-on in Welles's infamous 1937 production of Julius Caesar in New York (it's framed by a sort of "I'll never forget that week" nostalgia rhetoric that makes you wish Linklater had gone the whole hog, and bookended proceedings with a bewhiskered Efron dandling a grandchild on his knee, toffees in hand).

Also in the company are Claire Danes, briefly won over by Efron's boyish charms, Eddie Marsan, wringing his hands as the financier, and Ben Chaplin, unexpectedly hilarious as venerable English thesp George Coulouris. Newcomer Christian McKay (who's done a few Miss Marples, and played Welles on stage) makes a magnificent Orson, but it's Efron who really impresses: showing a depth and charm you'd never have dreamed of. He's not afraid to look petulant and silly, and does, frequently. That said, there are moments - check out the menacing screengrab above - in which you can't help but think: Efron should really, at some point, play a killer.

Richard Linklater with Zac Efron and Christian McKay on the set of Me and Orson Welles Photograph: PR